Chapter 20

Translator and Editor: Effe and Nabi

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Chapter 20

They didn’t go fast.

It was quite difficult to find a way on the snowy field, and Leonhard could only make a way in a straight line. They even ran into a path they had already passed.

The point where the road met was not at the level of melting snow, though the ground was dug deep, so they had to be careful not to hurt the horse.

“What is that?”

When the overlapping point appeared for the third time, Celine pulled her head and asked if she noticed something twinkling on the ground. The round sphere, which looked like a gigantic gemstone, shone dazzlingly even though only a part was exposed.

Leonhard stopped immediately.

“It’s a magic stone.”

“Is that…?”

She exclaimed half-shouting in surprise.

It was because all of the magic stones she had ever seen were the size of small jewels. Meanwhile, this… It was the size of a human head.

“Do you have such a large magic stone?”

“The magic stones I have seen so far are only small because they are made by refining the horns and teeth of monsters. Many magic stones in their natural state are this large.”

Saying so, he jumped off his horse and dug a magic stone right away with Rashir before handing it to Celine.

The magic stone, which was fully revealed, gleamed in golden light.

“Ah…”

Celine let out a soft sigh.

As soon as she grasped the magic stone, her exhausted body became warm and her magical power poured into her.

“I’m glad it worked. Magic stones in their natural state have a lot of magic power.”

With those words, Celine gave up hope that she would be able to obtain magical powers to help her. However, it didn’t look like this magic stone had normal magic power. There was no end to it, no matter how much power it contained in its size.

“It has a lot of magic…”

“It’s strange. I have never heard of a magic stone in its natural state that contains so much magic.”

Had it been about an hour?

Finally, Celine absorbed all the magic of the magic stone. She used to absorb the magic of the highest grade magic stone in a matter of minutes, so she herself was quite puzzled.

“It’s all over.”

Then, she carefully dropped the magic stone to the ground.

Creak!

“…?”

It was not the usual sound when the stone fell, but the sound of an egg’s shell breaking.

At that moment, the two gazed at the magic stone with tight tension. Leonhard had already raised Rashir. Soon after, the magic stone split in half, and something squirmed in the middle.

“Dragon…?”

A word of surprise escaped Celine’s lips.

At first glance, the palm-sized animal wriggling among the fragmented magic stones looked like a golden lizard, though its shape was definitely a dragon.

Even very familiar to the eye…

The dragon in front of her was very similar to one of the items that could be bought by collecting points in the shop of [ Celine’s Nightmare. ]

‘Come to think of it, the concept was not to buy the dragon itself although to buy the dragon’s eggs and hatch them…’

Thinking so, she took a step back.

Players called dragons pretty trash.

It was pathetic just to have no ability other than to follow the main character. Still, because there was even a dragon-induced dead ending, if the dragon even imprinted on the player as the master for nothing, it became troublesome.

Just then, the dragon flew towards Celine.

Swish!

Immediately Rashir drew a circle towards the dragon. However, the dragon evaded Rashir with a funny gesture and landed in her hand.

“…No way—”

A groan came out of nowhere. Could it be that this dragon has already imprinted on her as its master…?

Celine tried to tear off the dragon with all her might, but the dragon did not budge. Eventually, she raised her head to ask Leonhard for help, but only saw a puzzled face.

“This is my first time seeing this. It’s a dragon that clings to people…”

Leonhard looked closer to curiosity than worry.

“But, I have never heard of a dragon that harms people. I don’t think you need to worry too much.”

“What if it keeps sticking around?”

Muttering so, she trembled as she remembered the player who had died while loving the dragon.

“Perhaps, Lute Carl knows the way.”

Leonhard’s face, as he spoke the name of Carl, looked somewhat displeased.

And so, they set off quickly.

Now that the horse was filled with magical power, it could run through the snowy fields with warmth around the horse. Celine was eager to get the dragon removed from her body. Nonetheless, the dragon was wrapped around her wrist as if it was a thermal bracelet, giving off a little warmth.

“It’s like a gold bracelet.”

“I wish I could melt it like gold!”

“Think good. Dragons are worshiped as gods in the South, so if you go, you might be treated like a god.”

“I have no reason to go to the South.”

“I can leave on a mission to the South.”

Leonhard’s voice was slightly disappointed.

“Ah…!”

Celine laughed softly.

“Yes. Though will he stay with me until then?”

“I don’t know. It is said that those who wake up from eggs imprint the first person they see as their mother.”

“Then, it must have been Rashir the first thing it saw…!”

They talked only about dragons until they reached the castle. The dragon moved from her palm to his wrist, and its eyes were closed without moving. As soon as they got off the horse, they went straight to Carl.

Leonhard followed her without even reporting first.

Carl’s eyes widened as soon as he saw Celine’s wrist.

“This… What happened?”

At that, she briefly described the magic stone she stumbled upon and the dragon that had awakened within it.

Carl’s expression turned serious.

“It’s absurd.”

“But, it happened.”

“I saw it with my own eyes.”

Leonhard spoke a word from the side.

Carl shook his head.

“It doesn’t mean that. Do you know how much energy it takes to break a dragon egg?”

“I wanted to have a little more magical power.”

“A little?”

Immediately, Carl’s voice rose.

“Lute Celine, I know your magic power. It’s great, however, it was not enough to hatch dragon eggs! Did you hit it with Rashir?”

“…Ah.”

Carl turned his head toward Leonhard, who looked as if he had realized something.

“I melted the snow with Rashir. This is where two lines overlapped.”

“As expected.”

Hearing that, Carl’s face was wearing an expression as though he understood.

“It was beaten by Rashir twice and was also absorbed by Lute Celine, so it was able to hatch. Congratulations.”

“Yes? Is this something to celebrate?”

Celine decided to stay away from Carl as if he was a believer of the Southern God.

However, his reply was serious.

“Do you know what their food is?”

“No.”

“It is magic stones.”

“….!”

At his words, her eyes widened.

“It can eat endlessly. The highest confirmed record is 201. It couldn’t eat more because there was no more money.”

“Doesn’t it all disappear when it eat it?”

“No way.”

Leonhard explained instead.

“It recognized you as the owner. It is a living magic stone that only you can use. If the dragon eats 100 or 200, you are storing that much magical power.”

“Lord is right.”

“….”

Celine lost her words, and she stared at the dragon. She thought it was pretty trash, but in reality, it was such a great item! There would be no more trouble like this morning due to the depletion of magic.

‘Hey, because I couldn’t use magic in the game.’

No matter how great it was, it was an item that only a wizard could use, so it was only a treasure trove to the ordinary Celine of the game.

“Will, will it still be stuck?”

At the question, Carl hesitated a little before opening his mouth again, “I do not know. I’ve only heard of cases like this… Although as they grow up, you will fall.”

He held out one of the red magic stones to Celine.

“Eat only one per day. There are cases where they gave a young one like this a lot and caused it to die from too much magical power.”

After that, Leonhard abruptly grabbed Celine’s hand and dragged her as soon as she fed the magic stone to the dragon.

“Thank you, Lute Carl. Celine, wouldn’t it be better to go and rest?”

“I should.”

Even so, she felt dizzy, perhaps because she had been through so much trouble.

Celine entered Natasha’s tower as he led her. The escort maids shook her head as soon as they saw her.

“Your complexion is so bad! Oh my gosh, the clothes…!”

She realized that until now, she had worn Leonhard’s cloak all the time and that she had made her own clothes ragged.

“You died again—!”

Miriam looked like she was about to cry, as she looked into her complexion.

“It’s okay.”

As Celine smiled slightly as she felt Miriam’s cool hand touching her own forehead, her expression grew even more serious.

“It’s okay? What’s okay, no, do you have a fever?”

“Really?”

At Miriam’s words, Leonhard asked with a frightened face. El glanced at him and Celine alternately, and asked, expressionless.

“Lord, did you feel any chills?”

“….? Well, we came through the snow…”

“It seems you are still blunt.”

It was then that Celine noticed that he was trembling slightly, and that his face was paler than usual. Immediately, she strode towards him.

“Excuse me.”

She took a yellow, dried leaf from her pocket and tapped it to Leonhard’s forehead.

The leaves turned red in an instant.

“This is too much? I will call Doctor Branche.”

Replying to her, he suddenly hardened his face.

“You don’t have to.”

“Miriam, bring the Princess.”

“Yes.”

As soon as Miriam took a step, he sighed.

“All right. I’ll go back to my room for treatment.”

“Leon! Celine…!”

“Princess!”

Aria, the only escort maid not present, appeared with Natasha. Natasha ran to them with her arms open.

“Oh, why did it take so long? Of course, I wasn’t worried… Still, just in case…”

Natasha stopped suddenly, and she tore off the red leaf that was still attached to Leonhard’s forehead.

“…I’ll call Doctor Branche.”

“Don’t do that.”

He was answering so in a clear warning tone.

Seeing his reaction, Celine spoke her words carefully.

“If Leonhard is okay, I want to be treated together…”

At her words, his expression, which had been standing tight, softened in an instant.

“…Do you want me to be with you?”

Celine nodded her head.

“I’m a little scared, too. I don’t like doctors.”

To be precise, she was afraid of a doctor who would appear in this medieval game. All of a sudden, it was all because of bad blood. So, if they brought a barrel full of leeches that had to suck up to her blood, she was going to borrow Leonhard’s power and run away together.

“Okay.”

Fortunately, Doctor Branche was a very modern doctor, except that he attended Celine’s breathing with a stick instead of a stethoscope.

“First of all, I will give you medicine to relieve the fever. Have a good rest today, and see you tomorrow.”

“Thank you.”

Meanwhile, Leonhard also received a diagnosis that was nothing special, though he had a very unpleasant expression on his face.

Celine soon knew the real reason.

Medicines to relieve fever… It was an unidentified liquid with bubbles coming up.

“It’s better to stay ill for a few days than to eat this.”

Even though his murmur could be heard from the side, Celine closed her eyes and drank it all in one shot.

“Whoop—!”

She then wondered if it would taste like this if she mixed wasabi with cider. Nonetheless, whether the effect seemed to be excellent, Celine felt her headache gradually subsiding.

“Lord, you must eat.”

El warned.

“I will not eat.”

Eventually, Celine walked over to Leonhard, placing the cup on her table.

“It works well… Can’t you eat it? He says you have a terrible fever, but if you don’t eat, something bad happens…”

“It’s not a big deal, so don’t worry.”

Her head turned quickly. If the leaf acted as a thermometer earlier, seeing El’s reaction, Leonhard didn’t seem to have a normal high fever.

She smiled slightly.

“I didn’t know that Leonhard could be afraid of medicine.”

At that, he stared at her.

“Am I afraid of this?”

“Aren’t you afraid?”

“….”

In the next moment, Leonhard poured all the medicine in the cup into his mouth. Despite his handsome face contorted in an instant, the medicine quickly ran down his throat, and Celine sighed in relief.

“Okay, is it working?”

“Yes.”

She smiled as she gazed at Leonhard, whose complexion had improved.

“I’m glad that Leonhard’s body has improved a lot.”

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Join our discord to receive the latest updates as soon as possible!